Lap norton 4k/8k stone before first use?

Cool deal. Thanks again.

For clarification, I don't doubt or question your experience, and I certainly don't claim to be an authority on the matter.

Perhaps there's some middle-ground here, since we seem to have positive evidence of both. Maybe an initial lapping of the stone makes things easier for a 'newbie' who has no technique, but a stone straight out of the box can be easily tamed by the honing aficionados~

Have a good one.

My Nortons--I've used two different ones--both needed flattening out of the box. If you draw a grid on the stone and give it a few laps on 600 or 800 grit sandpaper, you'll see how flat the stone is. Mine were both cupped in the middle, and it took a bit of work to get them flat.

Now that they're flat, I only have to lap them about every 10 razors or so. (I do the heavy hone work on 1000-grit sandpaper and water stone, though.)

I hone a lot of eBay razors, so I put plenty of wear on my Norton.

Josh

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Originally Posted by JoshEarl

My Nortons--I've used two different ones--both needed flattening out of the box.
Josh

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I'll second this. I bought a Norton 4k/8k combo and found that I needed to flatten it initially as well. It wasn't very bad but it did need it.